‘Affluenza teen’ Ethan Couch could be back in Fort Worth this week
Ethan Couch has dropped his challenge to deportation from Mexico, where he has been in a detention center for a month, and may return soon to Tarrant County, his Mexican attorney said Tuesday.
Attorney Fernando Benitez said a judge lifted a stay of deportation on Tuesday after Couch, 18, withdrew a legal challenge called a writ of amparo.
There is “no legal impediment for deportation,” Benitez wrote in a email to the Star-Telegram. “Should be sent back ASAP.”
Tarrant County Sheriff Dee Anderson said he hadn’t heard from the U.S. Marshals Service about specifics of returning Couch.
Marshals likely will escort him on a commercial flight from Mexico City, and Tarrant County deputies will pick him up at an airport and transport him to Fort Worth, Anderson said.
Ethan Couch’s Fort Worth attorneys, Scott Brown and Reagan Wynn, said last week they expected the teenager to return before his next court date on Feb. 19 when a judge is expected to decide whether to transfer his case to the adult probation system.
Neither attorney could be immediately reached to comment Tuesday.
Couch is serving 10 years on probation for a 2013 drunken-driving crash that killed four people and injured several others. During his trial in juvenile court, a witness mentioned that Couch didn’t know right from wrong because of “affluenza” caused by his affluent parents’ failure to impose consequences for his behavior.
In December, Couch fled to Mexico with his mother, Tonya Couch, after a video showing him at a drunken party surfaced on Twitter.
Couch and his mother were detained in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. His mother was sent back to Tarrant County where she is free on bond.
Mothers Against Drunk Driving launched a petition drive this month demanding that Ethan Couch’s case be moved to adult court.
“Couch has been found, and everything possible must be done to hold him accountable and to ensure that Couch has no more victims,” MADD National President Colleen Sheehey-Church stated in a news release about the petition. “Couch is not a child. His actions are not that of a child. Four people were killed and several injured, and Couch continues to show no remorse and blatant disregard for the law.”
Through Tuesday afternoon, the petition had gained more than 45,000 signatures.
Ryan Osborne: 817-390-7760, @RyanOsborneFWST
This story was originally published January 26, 2016 at 1:57 PM with the headline "‘Affluenza teen’ Ethan Couch could be back in Fort Worth this week."